


Punishment

by SunshineA



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: FrostIron - Freeform, Loki is one of the Avengers, M/M, smut at the end, sort of, the Tesseract is making a mess again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-12
Updated: 2012-11-12
Packaged: 2017-11-18 12:33:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/561112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunshineA/pseuds/SunshineA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After failed attempt to have some rest Tony and Loki are back in Stark Tower. Fury informs them about misbehaving of the Tesseract and Loki is willing to help. He wasn't expecting what he'll get after getting too close to the cube.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Punishment

**Author's Note:**

> It's my first fic written in english so, please, be gentle ;]  
> Prompt about the vacation was given to me by [quakerlass](http://quakerlass.tumblr.com) and the story was beta'd by lovely [milliethefreak](http://milliethefreak.tumblr.com) <3 thank you both so much! <3

The whole idea about vacation was just one big mistake. Why didn’t he know that back then, he had no idea. But finally they were home. 

After Hawaii and Alaska.

Tony looked at Loki over his suit and grinned remembering the god’s face when they went on the beach for the first time. Tony was pretty sure Loki would kill everyone near them. He could see how uncomfortable he felt exposed on the sun with just his trunks on. They survived there only three days. Hawaii was the place Tony loved to visit from time to time and he picked it just because he felt like going there. He knew Loki would not be pleased about it, but he had no idea it would be that bad. The first day was okay. They were just lying on the beach in the shadow of the trees far away from the shore. For most of the time Stark didn’t have to worry about people recognizing him. The beach was small and accessible only for guests of the hotel they stayed in.

It all started to get worse on the second day, when the hotel suddenly flooded with people from all over the world. Half of them were people Tony knew or recognized from newspapers and television and he didn’t care about them. What worried him the most was the fact this year some radio station in Europe organized a competition and people who won got a place in his hotel. 

When he went down to the restaurant with Loki for breakfast he needed to go out immediately, following the God, because of the people who wanted his autograph, take a picture with him or just wanted to seduce him, which, by the way, was making Tony annoyed.

For a long long time Tony hadn’t had a one night stand. To be honest he stopped doing that since his relationship with Pepper, which obviously hadn’t survived. They broke up shortly after Loki’s trial (after he tried) to take over the earth. It was Pepper who broke up with him. She said she couldn’t survive constant worrying about his life and she preferred being Stark Industries’ CEO than his girlfriend. Sad but true.

Tony hadn’t even had time to start his usual mode of life when he met Loki again. At first he felt the biggest urge in his entire life to kill the god. Fortunately Thor wouldn’t let him do that. Stark still couldn’t understand how it actually happened, but Loki took one of the rooms in the Stark Tower, which after the Avengers’ first mission became some kind of Headquarters. During the days he was nowhere to be seen. No one could enter the room he was living in and the only way to see him was to stay up all night and sit in the kitchen, where he was coming every night to get some food and drink. Tony saw him almost every night, since he loved to work at nights. After couple of weeks he got used to the God of Mischief under his roof. It took him another couple of weeks to start a conversation with him, and when he finally did it, it turned out they had a lot in common.

Those talks were drawing Tony away from his work on new suits. He spent hours with the god on the couch in the living room talking about everything. At first he wasn’t taking their conversations seriously. He couldn’t bring himself to do so when he knew Loki’s reputation. And he still had this feeling inside of him that told him to kill him every time he saw him. It took him some time to forget about what Loki had done to him and the rest of the others. He was the first to do so in the team.

Soon their talks started to be more and more intimate. Tony was talking about his childhood, his mother and father, how he was ignored by the one who gave birth to him and how he sought for attention. Loki in exchange was telling him about his life in Asgard before he found out he was a Frost Giant, his relationship with Thor and his love for magic in his early years. Tony never found out how old Loki really was, but he didn’t care about this even now.

Those three days they’d spent on Hawaii showed what Tony already knew: Loki was a loner. He didn’t need to talk to him to know that the god preferred to be alone. Even Thor told them so every time someone was asking if Loki was still in his room.

Every time they left their hotel room and someone approached them, mostly because of Tony, Loki went still and cold and didn’t say a single word until they were finally alone. It was his defense mechanism, Tony knew that very well. Even when the god was there with Stark he couldn’t feel safe. He admitted that in Tony’s private jet on their way to Alaska.

In one of the coldest states of the USA they survived one day longer than on Hawaii. Mostly because Loki loved the low temperature of the water in the lake near their cottage and took a bath in it every morning and evening. Naked in most cases. Those were the times when Tony wasn’t bored. He loved to watch god walk away to the shore of the lake, go in the water and swim in it for the longest time. He just seemed to fit to the colors surrounding them. Woods were all around them, snow lying here and there and the cold sun shining in all shades of white. Loki’s pale skin looked beautiful in every light back there and it was the view Tony loved so much that he managed to survive without his cellphone (there was no signal because of the trees), no internet connection and away from every possible human being so long. Four days was for him a really long time to take off. Right after their return Stark called his new assistant, who looked like a darker version of Charlize Theron, and told her to buy the cottage they just were in. No matter how hard it was for him to survive in there he wanted to see Loki again there, naked, swimming in the lake.

Now they were both sitting in the lab of Stark Tower after an unsuccessful week of vacation and having the best time so far. Tony was working on one of his suits damaged in his latest mission two weeks ago and Loki was having interesting conversation with JARVIS about people’s sources of electricity. He was on earth for nearly a year and wanted to know everything. Literally.

“And how does this nuclear power plant work?” he asked AI with curiosity visible on his face.

“It is very complex process, sir,” JARVIS replied and Tony quickly focused on his suit. JARVIS’ explanation wouldn’t be interesting enough for him to actually enjoy it.

He found some broken wires in the left arm of the suit. After he fixed that he had to check the connection between the suit and his arc reactor. It almost got him killed two weeks ago. For a couple of minutes he couldn’t move, because of the connection that suddenly broke off. He thought it was caused by a strong hit he received from the Hulk, who was running around the place hitting the bad guys. Iron Man was just standing in his way and Tony knew that was a mistake. After the fight Bruce apologized to him sincerely.

“Tony,” he looked up over the suit to find Loki before him.

“Yeah?” he asked looking at the god curiously.

“Have you finished?”

Tony shook his head. “Not yet. I just have a few more wires to fix.”

“This shall wait,” Loki said loudly and imperiously. Tony raised a brow at that and smirked. “I have other things in mind for us.”

“Like?” billionaire looked at the god and stood up on his feet. “Loki, I really don’t have time for this, whatever it is,” he said. “I need to get this done before the next alarm goes off.”

Next thing he knew the Asgardian was in front of him, deep green mist surrounding them. Loki took a step closer and Tony could feel his body on his. He could feel the god’s hands on his neck and he pulled him closer.

“You will not say ‘no’ to that, will you?” Loki whispered straight to his ear.

“Um,” Tony teased and he felt Loki’s tongue moving on the line of his jaw. “I don’t think so.”

“That is exactly my thought,” Loki grinned and placed a small kiss on Tony’s lips.

That’s when JARVIS joined in.

“Sir, Director Fury is upstairs and wants to talk with the whole team.”

Both men sighted heavily. Tony took Loki closer to him anyway and kissed him hungrily. The god returned the gesture and bit Tony’s lower lip the moment he broke the kiss. The billionaire grinned at the man in his arms and let go of him to catch his hand in his the next moment. They both went into the elevator and few minutes later were standing in the living room.

The rest of the Avengers were already there, they were just waiting for Tony to join in. Loki wasn’t a part of the team. Not officially, at least. Fury thought about his joining in as “the worst thing to do now”, since it wasn’t even a year after the events in New York City. The god, surprising everyone, agreed with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s director. He didn’t want to be a part of the team, but that didn’t stop him from taking part in every fight they were involved in.

Loki loved chaos and he caused it every time he could. Tony loved only one kind – the kind he made in bed. When it came to the chaos in a fight the whole team decided Hulk was enough, but Loki was Loki, and he always did what he wanted to. That basically meant some injuries in the fight. For example Thor received quite a big amount of arrows from Hawkeye into his arms and chest. The God of Mischief loved to play with Clint’s mind; he made Thor look like the villain they were fighting with at given times. Thor laughed each wound off, saying it was nothing for him since he could heal easily, but Clint was on the edge of murdering Loki after their every job.

Tony sat down on the couch next to Steve and Loki followed him. Fury wasn’t happy at seeing the god in the room; he was eyeing him with his one eye since the moment Tony and Loki entered the room. It took a moment for the colonel to get used to the sight of Loki on the couch, when he finally decided to tell them why he called them all in.

“The Tesseract is misbehaving again”, he said and looked at every member of the team for a second. He didn’t look at Loki, obviously. “It’s shooting out balls of energy. One of them nearly destroyed our lab in New Mexico. We had to move it into the Appalachian Mountains so no one’ll get hurt if the next energy ball will be too big.”

“Is it like the last time?” asked Clint.

Fury nodded. “More or less. We have Dr Selvig looking over it and he says there’s the same danger. We don’t want to do anything bad, Thor agreed with his father Tesseract will be back in seven days.”

He placed his eye on Loki this time. Everyone in the room did the same thing, each face with different expression.

Fury was looking at him like he just caught his son watching porn on the web. At least that’s the look Tony’s father gave him when he caught him. Shortly after that incident Tony was sent to a more restricted boarding school. Clint was obviously pissed off, and the billionaire understood that. Natasha was rather calm, which meant she was trying to read the god just by looking at him, and everyone knew she was a master at that. Bruce looked like he had to look at a really unpleasant looking creature and Thor… All Tony could see in his eyes was care.

“I have nothing to do with the Tesseract’s energy blasts,” Loki said in a second. “But I think I can help in finding out why is it happening.”

“How?” Tony looked at him, frowning.

Loki smiled a little bit while looking in Tony’s brown eyes and then he looked straight at Fury.

“I know its energy very well. With use of my magic I could easily find the source of the energy rise and the creature behind it. If there is any, of course.”

Natasha looked at him alarmed. “There’s a possibility of that?”

“Of course there is,” the god said with hint of mockery in his voice. “I am not the only sorcerer in the nine realms strong enough to use the power of Tesseract.”

“Are we in big danger?” Bruce looked at him slightly uneasily.

Loki nodded with sad expression on his face.

“Yes. If the person can make the Tesseract shoot such energy blasts this means they are strong enough to do much damage to the place it is in.”

“But what if the guy who’s making it is good?” Tony asked with stupid hope in his voice. The whole room looked at him like they were about to call a mental hospital and send him in. “Right,” he nodded, “not gonna happen.”

“How long will it take you to find the guy?” Fury asked.

Loki shrugged. “Depends. I need to see the cube first.”

The director stood up from his chair and moved to stand in front of the god. Both were looking at each other for a long minute that felt like an hour, and finally Fury nodded, blinking heavily. He walked to the door on the landing, where one of the small jets stood.

“Get ready. We’re going now. Stark and Captain too.”

The three men nodded and stood up before last word left Fury’s mouth. They went to the elevator without saying a word, leaving rest of the team in the living  room. Steve pushed the right button, metal doors closed in front of them and they all felt a familiar hitch when the lift moved.

“It’s weird,” Tony stated. “I wouldn’t have thought Fury would agree on that so quickly.”

Steve looked at him matter-of-factly. “Well, what choice did he have? Loki is the only one besides Thor who knows more about the cube than us.”

“I have bigger knowledge than Thor,” Loki said quickly, pulling a face while saying the name of his stepbrother. “I know what the Tesseract is capable of when it is controlled and when it is not. I have not heard of anyone who is more powerful than I, and I used Dr Selvig to unleash the cube’s power. If the other sorcerer is doing it alone and is not strong enough, and I am sure he is not, he will bring the whole universe into destruction. None of nine realms will survive.”

The silence that fell in the elevator was unbearable for Tony. 

Loki never was the one to make things easier for people. Tony was even trying to convince him to be more… delicate with bad news and he had a feeling right now Loki was being delicate with this. And that thought gave him shivers. He looked at Steve, who was standing on the other side of the god. The look on his face made the billionaire think about a hurt puppy.

This was even bigger than the last time the Tesseract was involved – back then it was just about creating a portal to bring on Earth an army of aliens. At least that’s what Tony thought. This was way beyond any of them could ever imagine, and Tony had to admit he was plain scared to his bones.

“That’s just peachy,” he said under his nose, but loud enough for the two other men to hear him.

Loki wrapped his arm around Tony’s waist and brought him closer to himself. “I am helping you. I cannot promise nothing bad will happen but I will surely not let it.”

“Good thing we have you on our side now. Well, kind of,” Steve said lightly. The elevator stopped and the doors slid open. They all went out and Steve turned to the corridor on the left, making his way to his room. “See you downstairs, guys,” he said over his shoulder and disappeared behind the turn.

“I guess we can say goodbye to our last week of vacation,” Tony said scratching his head.

* * *

It was hard to reach the S.H.I.E.L.D. lab in the mountains. It also took them some time, which meant they’d spent almost two hours with Fury’s watchful eye upon them. None of them said a word during the flight. Tony had to bite his tongue many times not to do so. It just didn’t feel right to say something he considered funny but what wouldn’t be funny for the rest of people in the jet. The situation was so bad he didn’t even feel the need to say something, it was just in his blood now and was like inborn reflex. When they finally landed Tony took his Iron Man case in his hand and along with Steve in his Captain’s suit, Loki in his Asgardian clothes and two other agents followed Fury to the lower levels.

After a few floors in the elevator and many long corridors they finally reached the room the Tesseract was in. They didn’t enter at once. First they looked through the big window in the wall, and what Tony saw made him stop his breath in his lungs.

The cube was surrounded by a much bigger ball of light blue energy. It almost looked like the last time he saw it on the roof of Stark Tower less than a year ago. It was precisely in the middle of the room placed between four metal arms that were touching the cube with its sharp ends. On the left, a few meters in front of it, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s scientists had their work place with computers and every other device they needed to have. There were at least fifteen people there and Tony was wandering if they were afraid they could die any minute. He recognized Dr Selvig walking around every person there and checking their work. When his eyes fell on Tony and the others he nodded and used the door in the left wall. After few seconds he walked out of the turn and moved quickly towards them.

Suddenly he stopped looking terrified. Tony frowned and turned to his left, where Selvig’s terrified gaze fell. He saw Loki and in a second understood everything. Last time the two men met it was unpleasant for the doctor, to say mildly. Fury rushed toward him.

“It’s okay doctor,” he said loudly trying to make the man look at him. “He’s here to help.”

“Help?” Selvig uttered still not looking at the colonel. “Since when is the most dangerous villain helping us?”

“For a couple of months now, I guess,” Fury said and Tony could hear dissatisfaction in his voice.

“You guess?”

“Hey, hey,” Tony said taking a step forward. “He’s sort of good guy now, I can assure you, doc. He wants to help in finding out what’s going on with the cube.”

Selvig looked at Tony like he was dealing with a patient of a mental hospital, which made Tony frustrated. After few seconds he saw Loki moving towards the doctor with his calm face, wearing an apologetic smile. “I am sorry for every harm I have done to you. I was fully aware of my actions but that was the only way I could do, what I was told. I am terribly sorry, Dr Selvig.”

Everyone was quiet watching Selvig, Loki and Fury, to see which one will be the first to do something. Tony did the same thing and was praying it would be Fury to give an order so Loki would be able to finally do what they came here for. He was more than disappointed when he heard Selvig’s voice.

“I’m not letting him in. Forget it. I won’t do that.”

Fury took in a heavy breath and looked at the doctor. “You need to let him in. We don’t have time for your team to find out what’s going on. If the god says he can help, I need to take that chance.”

Both men looked each other hard in the eyes for what seemed like hours. Finally Selvig sighted heavily and looked at Loki.

“I’m not accepting your apologies,” he said angrily and Loki nodded to show him he understood. “But the colonel’s right, I’m afraid we don’t have enough time to find out what’s going on ourselves so…”

He turned around and started walking to the turn that led to the entrance of the room. Tony, Loki and the rest followed him silently. They barely entered the room when Tony felt his hair stand all over his body. He felt like he could touch the energy surrounding them, it was massive. He looked around on the faces of the others and saw he wasn’t the only one. Agents, who came with them must’ve been here for the first time, because their eyes were wide with shock. The Captain had pretty much the same expression on his face as the agents. From Fury’s face Tony couldn’t read a single thing, and Loki, on the other hand, was looking at the cube with mixture of fear and excitement. Tony decided it wasn’t a good sign.

“How it was behaving, doctor?” the god asked with his eyes still upon the Tesseract.

“It was shooting small balls of energy in different directions every thirty minutes. One should come off in a minute,” Selvig said looking at the clock on one of the monitors.

After a few seconds the ball of energy around the cube became darker. Tony took one step back and watched when it suddenly shrank for a second and let out a small blue ball right in the wall across the window they were looking through minutes ago. Everyone accept Selvig and Loki jumped at the sound the ball made at the collision with the wall. It was like explosion of the bomb in a small building. The difference was there was no fire, no smog, just a hole in the wall that looked like Tony could put his head inside. Not that he would do that, he wasn’t that crazy.

He looked back at the Tesseract to see that the ball of energy around it come back to its original size, or maybe stayed slightly bigger.

“That was fucking scary,” he said aloud, hearing his voice was shaking slightly.

Steve looked at him, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. Tony asked noiselessly, “What?” but received no response. Instead he saw in the corner of his eye that Loki was moving forward, getting closer to the cube with every step he took. Almost immediately, he, Fury and Selvig followed him quickly. Tony was the first one to reach him. He grabbed god’s arm and made him stop. “What the hell, are you doin’, huh?”

Loki looked at him with madness and excitement in his deep green eyes. “I need to come closer to determine the kind of power.”

Tony hadn’t believed every word. He’d never seen this look of Loki’s and the feeling in his gut told him it was very bad thing. He wanted to take him out of there as fast as he could, although he knew it would be more than difficult. Suddenly he started to regret that Thor wasn’t here with them. He was afraid of what the god would do if he got closer to the Tesseract.

Tony was about to say “no” loud and clear when Fury started to give orders. “Captain, get behind the cube. You two,” he looked at his agents, “stand right there.” He pointed at the wall with hole. “Stark,” he looked at Tony, “you take the side with the window.”

“What? No,” Tony said quickly.

“It’s an order. Do as I said or I’ll have you out of here.”

Tony looked him hard in the eye. He wasn’t thinking about doing what he was told. What he was planning to do was take Loki out of here. Now. But he couldn’t. Loki subtly pulled his arm out of Tony’s grip. The billionaire looked at him and the next thing he did was to walk to the place Fury told him to stand. By the look he received from the god he realized, Loki knew exactly what Tony was thinking and by one look Loki told him it was not gonna happen. He breathed heavily and looked at the god, who was taking small steps forward.

Everyone was looking at him. Tony froze with his Iron Man suitcase in one hand. With Loki’s every step the feeling in his gut was growing bigger and bigger. When the man was two meters away from the cube Tony was struggling not to run to him at take him away. Loki took two more steps and that’s when Tony screamed his name with horror.

The ball around the Tesseract broke like a bubble. All of the energy in it was unleashed and in a blink of an eye covered Loki with thick layer. Tony started to run but at the same moment the energy just took Loki into the cube and he was gone.

Just like that. Gone.

* * *

Next thing Tony remembers is the ceiling in his room.

And voices.

“Bruce, what do you think?”

“It’s a shock, nothing more. The blast of energy that hit him was pretty huge so it’s almost a miracle that he lived. I just don’t know exactly when he’ll wake up.”

What?

He started to think hard over last thing he remembers and… the only thing he could see was bright blue light. Fuck. Bruce was right. He was lucky he was still alive. He still didn’t remember much from what happened in between Loki’s disappearance and his loss of consciousness but he was pretty sure Steve or someone else would tell him. He didn’t think there was much to say, though. Judging from the bright blue light in his mind he was hit. And that was probably all.

Tony slowly opened his eyes and looked at his ceiling. He was in his room. Good. He sincerely hated hospitals. Although some nurses were great.

He took in a deep breath and slowly raised himself to sitting position. He felt pain all over his body and hissed loudly, closing his eyes. Next thing he heard were rushed footsteps and the mattress on the left side of his bed shifted. He didn’t open his eyes because he was sure who sat down next to him.

“Tony?” he heard Steve’s worried voice. “How are you feeling?”

He snorted which was so painful he must’ve let out another hiss. “I’m good,” he answered with irony in his voice trying not to open his mouth too much; it was painful too.

“I’ll give you some painkillers if you like.” He heard Bruce’s voice not far from him.

“Yes, please,” he answered quickly.

He decided to lie down again. This was followed by quiet cry of pain, but when he fell on his pillows he decided it was worth it. The pain went slowly away. Finally he opened his eyes and looked around.

The lights in the room were dimmed, the windows too. The only sources of light were his arc reactor and a small lamp on his night desk. He saw Steve sitting on the side of the bed, his worried frown making him guilty. Bruce was just walking back in the room with a glass of water in one hand and couple of painkiller pills in the other. Tony slowly raised his head swallowed the pills and drank the whole water. “Thanks,” he panted when he laid his head back on the pillows.

“Do you remember anything?” Steve asked him quietly.

“I think I do,” he answered. “And, hey, no need to be quiet, it’s just a little energy blast, nothing scary,” he joked trying to smile, but that hurt too. “God. How long I was unconscious?”

“Three days. Your body needed big recovery. When they brought you to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters it was…” Bruce hesitated. “Bad,” he said finally, smiling at him kindly.

“Wow,” was all Tony managed to say. He felt the pain getting weaker and he sighed with relief. Then he looked at Steve with worry. “Where’s Loki?”

Captain took in a deep breath and looked at the wall above Tony’s head. “We don’t know. When the cube… took him in… He hasn’t come back yet.”

Tony’s heart stopped for a minute and then started to beat a lot faster than it should. He looked at Bruce and the man nodded.

He knew that. He fucking knew this was going to end badly but as usual no one wanted to even hear him out. He should have taken Loki out of there or at least tried to do so. Now he had no idea where he was and if he was alright and still alive.

Fuck. Just fuck.

“Relax, Tony,” he heard Bruce closer. “Loki’s a god, he knows how to take care of himself. No need to be worried.”

Easy for you to say, Tony thought but didn’t said a word aloud. He just started to stare at his ceiling pretending he was alone. After few minutes of silence Steve and Bruce understood there was no point in sitting there and both walked to the door.

“Thanks,” Tony said suddenly still not looking at the men. “For taking care of me and not taking me to the hospital.”

“No problem,” he heard Steve’s reply.

Next thing he heard was the sound of the door shutting and he closed his eyes.

* * *

Tony spent next three days in bed. On the second day he thought he’d go crazy from lack of anything useful to do. Steve was checking him every hour and was staying every time for forty five minutes average. He was literally acting like a worried mother that had no other job than taking care of her son. From time to time Bruce or Clint were saving Tony from Cap saying they had some issue downstairs. But although Tony was going crazy when Steve was with him it was worse when he was alone. In those times he had nothing else to do but think and it was as painful as meeting with the Tesseract’s energy blast.

Mostly he was thinking about Loki. Where he was, if he was okay and who was with him. He was hoping the cube hadn’t sent him to the land of those Chitauri. He had told him that their king wouldn’t be hospitable for him. Asgard wasn’t a good place either. Thor was alright with Loki on earth, mostly because he still hoped the old Loki would come back, but Odin was a whole other story. From Thor’s stories and judging by what the God of Thunder was doing in New Mexico last year Tony knew the Allfather wouldn’t be so kind for his stepson too.

Every time his thoughts about Loki were getting darker and darker, and he was turning to his new plans. When the pain wasn’t killing him he was thinking about a new design for his suit, new modifications that included more weapons and more power to the repulsors. He was also thinking about stuff for other members of the team. Maybe a better bow for Clint, some cool guns for Tasha and Steve… He wasn’t sure what Bruce would consider useful for him or the Hulk so he left him and Thor out of these thoughts. Thor for obvious reasons, of course. His hammer was enough.

When he finally was allowed out of bed he went to the Mansion’s gym for some training. After four days in bed he needed to stretch his limbs. He stayed there for three hours using every single device he had there. At the end Clint joined him for little sparring. Tony won, using the opportunity to unload his frustration on his team mate. After that he took a quick shower, grabbed some coffee and sandwiches from kitchen and walked into his lab. He stayed there until morning.

His suit still needed some mending and he decided to put his earlier plans into practice. First he made some sketches, which alone took him a few hours. Then repairing – another few hours, and by the time the suit was ready to start the modifications Tony was barely able to see what was in front of him.

On his way to his bedroom he met Steve. The man tried to talk to him but Tony hadn’t understood a word he heard and, without saying anything, he continued his way to the bed leaving a confused Cap in the middle of the hallway.

That’s how the next seven days of his life looked like.

He was avoiding everyone, not counting sparring in the gym with Clint, Steve and Natasha. Every time someone reached him in his bedroom or lab to ask if he wanted to join the rest of the team for the meal or some movie in the leaving room he said no, explaining that he was tired or had a lot of work. He knew they all wanted to talk about Loki and how he felt but he definitely didn’t want to have that conversation with them. With anyone, to be honest. He just wanted Loki to be back, healthy and with no damage. That’s all he asked for.

On the twelfth day (or night) of Loki’s absence Tony was sitting in his lab working on a design for Clint’s new bow. Earlier that day he asked him what he would like it to look like and if he wanted any modifications and now was looking on a 3D model in front of him. He had to admit, it looked pretty badass.

All of a sudden he heard JARVIS. “Sir, there is an intruder on the balcony of you room.”

“What?” Tony instantly stood up, sending his chair to the floor. “Who’s that, JARVIS?”

He rushed to the elevator and pushed the right button.

“It seems to be Loki, sir, but his energy is very low and I can’t say exactly.”

“Fuck”, Tony murmured and pushed the button impatiently a few times.

When the elevator stopped he squeezed through the door that was sliding open too slow for him. He sprinted towards his room and rushed inside, closing the door behind him. Through the windows on the opposite wall he saw a dark figure slowly falling to its knees. He ran to one of the windows, opened it wide and fell to his knees right next to the god.

“Loki,” he said with pain in his voice. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s – nothing,” Loki croaked getting his arms around his belly. “I need -- to go -- inside.”

Without another word Tony stood up, gently grabbed Loki by his arms and they slowly walked into the room. The billionaire placed the god on the bed and looked at him. His clothes were ripped in some places and covered in small stains of blood here and there. He let out a silent curse and kneeled next to the bed. “Can I help you somehow? Tell me, please.”

Loki, with his eyes closed shook his head. “N -- no. I’ll be fine -- in a couple of hours.”

“Couple of hours”, Tony said with frustration.

All he could do now was sit next to the god and watch his pain while he was recovering from whatever had met him wherever he had been. Tony stood up and sat down on the bed next to Loki’s legs. He slowly took his shoes off and decided he won’t do anything more ‘cause Loki let out a short and silent cry. He was just sitting there with infirmity on his face and just couldn’t make himself look away from Loki, even if it caused him physical pain.

He jumped on the bed when he felt vibrations in left pocket of his jeans. After that the room was filled with “Shook Me All Night Long” by AC/DC. Tony quickly took the phone off his pocket and without looking on the screen pushed the right button. “Yes?” he asked silently still looking at the god in front of him.

“Tony, I have good news,” he heard Steve’s voice. “I’m with Thor and he just told me he felt Loki’s presence.”

“Wait, what?” Tony frowned. “Aren’t you on the other side of New York now?”

“Well, yes, but Thor -- what did you say?” the billionaire heard Thor’s deep voice giving Captain an answer. “He says he felt his magic. Strongly.”

“This means my brother must have used big amount of his magic for some reason. He is still using it,” Tony heard the God of Thunder loud and clear through the speaker.

“Yeah, well…” he said stroking his goatee. “I’m looking at him right now, he’s healing.”

“What?! We’ll be there in a minute,” said Steve and hung up before Tony could answer.

With a sigh he dropped his phone on the bed covers next to him and looked back at Loki. Tony wasn’t able to say what it was, but the god looked slightly better. One small wound under one of the holes was gone without leaving a scar behind. He decided to leave Loki alone for the time of his healing process. “JARVIS, when he’s okay, inform me.”

“Yes, sir.”

Tony stood up, gave Loki short worried look and went out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him. He went to the living room, going straight for a glass of whisky, and sat down on the couch.

Loki was finally here and he knew he’d be alright. If his magic could not take some of the wounds he’d call the only doctor he could trust – Banner – to help the god. Not counting Loki’s state, he was so fucking happy to see him again he could scream. He knew this was a bad, bad idea, even for him so he stopped himself from doing so. Instead he told JARVIS to play some of his favorite music while waiting for Thor and Cap.

Tony also knew the worst was awaiting them. If Loki was back, the rest of the team and S.H.I.E.L.D. would want to know where he was and what happened there. And if Earth was in danger. Damn, he wanted to know those things himself. But he was the only one, not counting Thor, that would take care of Loki’s physical state first. The rest – not so much. He hoped Steve hadn’t called S.H.I.E.L.D. the minute Thor told him his brother was back. If so Tony would have to have a serious argument with Fury, maybe even a little fight and he surely wasn’t in the mood for that.

Half an hour after Steve’s call, he and Thor were walking into the living room. Steve was still in his suit and Thor was holding Mjölnir in his hand. They both were breathing hard. “Where is my brother?” Thor asked looking at Tony with threat in his eyes as if he knew Tony was about to lie.

“In my bedroom,” he answered. Thor quickly turned around and moved towards the stairs. “He’s unconscious right now, be quiet,” Tony said after him, but he was already gone.

He felt Steve’s gaze on him and looked the man straight in the eyes. He was surprised to see accusation in those blue orbs. “What?”

“When were you planning on informing us he’s back?”

“Oh my God”, Tony sighted and looked at Steve with his weary eyes. “When I saw him on my balcony he was barely standing. I wasn’t thinking about informing you, I was more into doing everything to help him,” he said angrily.

He saw Steve’s expression changing from accusation to apology in a blink of an eye. “Right. I’m sorry,” Steve said slowly. “I’m just worried, you know.”

“You’re not the only one, Cap.” Tony sighted heavily and sat back onto the couch. “But right now there’s no way you will question him.”

Steve nodded and sat down next to Tony. He looked at him with worry visible on his face. Tony felt like he was lying in bed again after meeting with the Tesseract’s energy. “I bet you’re happy he’s finally back,” Steve said silently.

Tony looked at him and smiled a little. “Well, yes. Yes, I am. It’s good to have him back. Steve, I -- ,” Tony hesitated. “Did you call Fury?”

The man shook his head. “I thought I’d inform you first, which was a good idea after all. Thor wouldn’t let me anyway. He’s very protective.”

“Yep, that’s true. And thanks,” Tony said with relief in his voice.

“Sure. But you know we’ll have to call them eventually.”

The billionaire placed his looked down at the glass table in front of them and grabbed a glass of whisky. “I know, I know, Steve. Let’s just give Loki some time. We’ll figure out what to do in the morning, what do you think?”

“Good idea,” by the sound of his voice Tony could tell he was smiling.

* * *

Thor wouldn’t leave his brother even when Tony asked him to. He was so tired after a whole day of training and work in the lab, he was dreaming about his bed. But the god wouldn’t let him get it. He had to sleep on the couch in the living room. He was tired but thoughts about Loki lying upstairs and healing himself kept him awake for the next hour. He even wanted to go and check how he was, but he figured the big guy was enough. He decided he’d go check on him as soon as he woke up.

And so he did after four hours of uncomfortable sleep. When he went into his room he saw Thor lying next to Loki, sleeping. The God of Mischief was asleep too, Tony figured after watching his chest going up and down in a steady rhythm. As quietly as he could he took the chair from the desk on the other side of the room, placed it next to the side of the bed where Loki lay and sat down, watching both of the gods.

Loki looked completely healed, but with his bloody clothes still worried Tony. His right eye was purple, light pink scratches on his chin were still visible, and his neck was covered in bruises here and there. While looking at the holes in Loki’s black tunic and leather pants the billionaire couldn’t see any wounds, which made him relax a little bit.

The sun was slowly rising and shining through the big windows in Tony’s room. He told JARVIS to dim them so the gods on his bed wouldn’t wake up. It didn’t work for Loki. He slowly opened his eyes and looked for the longest minute at the white ceiling. Then he turned his head to his brother and let out a quiet smirk. Slowly he raised himself into sitting position and looked around the room. When his eyes fell on Tony he gave him the most beautiful smile in the whole world. He stood up, came to Tony and sat on his knees.

“I am so glad I’m back,” he said placing a kiss on Tony’s lips.

Tony wrapped his arms around Loki’s waist gently and looked him straight in the green eyes. “You have no idea how happy I am,” he said. “Can you tell me what happened?”

Loki frowned, took in a deep breath and smiled blankly. “I will but I’d rather share the story only if necessary.”

“Of course. We’ll wait for everyone to wake up. You’re hungry?” Tony asked.

Loki nodded and they both left the room going for the kitchen. Tony prepared a bowl full of flakes and a cup of coffee for him. Both of them sat on the chairs around the island in the middle of the kitchen. Shortly after they sat down Natasha and Clint came up for breakfast too. They were more than surprised when they saw Loki. Tony was in the middle of explaining to them what happened last night, when Bruce came in and he had to start the story from the beginning. After his coffee was gone and he finished explaining, Steve came and smiled to everyone.

“What, you’re not surprised Loki’s back?” Clint asked confused.

“I know he’s back, I came back from patrol with Thor when he felt Loki’s magic,” he answered, taking a whole box of eggs out of the fridge.

“So you couldn’t wake me, Tasha and Bruce up to tell us?” he asked in a resentful tone.

“Don’t be childish, Barton,” Tony spat out. “It was middle of the night, we weren’t really thinking about waking you up and informing you about everything.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Clint grinned and let out pained sound when Natasha hit him on the arm.

All this time Loki was sitting in his chair sipping his coffee with his eyes blurred, like his mind was somewhere else. All of a sudden he jumped on his chair and his face twisted in pain.

“What happened?” Tony asked looking at him, alarmed.

“Just a memory,” he said waving his hand. “Thor is walking down here. We can move to the leaving room, so I could tell you what awaited me on the other side.”

Clint almost fell of his chair when he quickly stood up and at the same time started walking toward the living room. Tasha rolled her eyes and followed him, saying something to Bruce, who was walking next to her. Steve walked right behind them with his big plate full of scrambled eggs in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. When Thor showed up in the kitchen he hugged his brother as gently as if he was holding an egg, took one box of pop-tarts out of the kitchen cabinet and all three of them walked into the living room.

Loki sat down on the couch with Tony on his right side and Thor on the left. Bruce and Tasha were sitting in the two armchairs. Clint was standing right behind her hands on the cushion and Steve was sitting on the floor between the big plasma screen and glass table. All of them were looking at Loki.

“So, what happened?” Clint asked with impatience in his voice.

Loki took in a deep breath and looked at all of them. “The tesseract sent me to the land of Chitauri.” Tony hissed and looked at the god with dread. Thor let out a loud groan of anger. “There I’ve met another sorcerer who was working for Thanos and by the threat of death he made him toy with the cube’s energy. It was all because Thanos wanted me to pay the price for failing.” He showed no emotions in his voice or face. Tony knew it was hard for him to talk about this just because Loki was holding his hand strongly in between their legs. His fingers hurt from the strength of Loki’s grip, but he didn’t say a word. “The minute he saw me his guards caught me and he promised me the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my life. At the end of the tortures he planned on killing me, but I managed to run away. He wanted just me this time, not Midgard, so for now you are safe,” he finished.

“’For now’,” Bruce said slowly and looked at the floor, frowning.

Silence fell all over the room for a long time. Finally Thor stood up sending the empty pop-tart box on the floor along with some crumbs. “I need to inform the All-father about this.”

Steve stood up and nodded. “You do that and I’ll call Fury. I think we all agree he needs to know.”

All of them nodded and Thor left the room followed by Steve.

“So,” Natasha looked at Loki, watching him carefully. “You’re saying this Thanos will try again?”

Loki nodded slowly. “Yes. Now, that he has the other sorcerer strong enough to manipulate the Tesseract from vast distances he will be trying to bring his army here and conquer Midgard. Good thing is, though, it will take the sorcerer some time, and with the cube on Asgard it is now even more laborious for them to manage it. And I will know when something threatening will be happening.”

“How?” Bruce asked looking at him with interest.

“Even now, away from the Tesseract, I can feel its energy. When it took me in I felt like I was going to be blown up into little pieces. I think some of its magic must have stayed in me somehow. Not much, just the smallest amount. Otherwise I would be long dead. And that allowed me to bring myself back here with help of my magic.”

“Wow, amazing,” Clint said with admiration.

Loki laughed and looked at the door where Steve stood, leaning on the door frame. “Fury told us to come immediately. He already sent one of the jets for us.”

* * *

All of them were back at the mansion after the sunset. JARVIS welcomed them and said there was a call for Bruce. They were all tired and after they went through the main door they wished each other a good night and went to their bedrooms.

Tony followed Loki upstairs and smiled when the God opened the door to his bedroom. Windows were still dimmed, but it didn’t make any difference now. Loki walked over to the bed and fell on the covers with a heavy sigh. Tony took off his jacket, placed it on the chair, which was still standing next to the bed, and fell on the mattress next to Loki.

“God, I thought they’d never let you go,” Tony said looking at the ceiling.

“I would walk out at any minute if I wanted to,” Loki said firmly. “I just want to help you and S.H.I.E.L.D. get prepared for Thanos’s army. If he manages to reach Midgard it will be extremely arduous fight.”

“Oh, well, thanks then.”

Loki let out quiet laugh and Tony felt his hand on his thigh. The touch sent a familiar rush into his veins. He turned his head and found Loki looking him straight in the eyes. All he could see in his green orbs was want and longing. The god took his hand off of Tony’s thigh and placed it on his cheek. “I want you.”

“Uh,” was all Tony managed to say. He wanted Loki as much as the god wanted him, but he wasn’t sure if Loki was alright now. He didn’t want to hurt him just because he gave in completely. “You sure? What if I hurt you?”

“You won’t,” Loki said and raised himself on the bed. He sat on Tony’s thighs and started running his hands up his chest. “I am fine now, and I want you,” he repeated with force in his voice.

Tony sat up and placed a kiss on god’s lips. Loki reciprocated the gesture and placed one hand on the back of Tony’s neck to keep him from backing away. He bit on Tony’s lower lip and darted his tongue into the billionaire’s mouth. Tony let him in and as he felt Loki’s warm tongue on his he embraced him closer to his body and became hungrier with his kisses.

It was way too long since he had felt him that close.

He snatched Loki’s tunic, removed it from him with a hurried move and threw it onto the floor. Then he took a minute to look at his chest. There were more bruises, big and purple ones, but Loki grabbed Tony’s face into his palms and made him look in god’s eyes. They started kissing again, Loki unbuttoning Tony’s plaid shirt and a few seconds later it joined the tunic. The only source of light in the room was arch reactor in Tony’s chest. It made Loki’s bruises look more awful but Tony didn’t see that; Loki took over his mind completely.

Loki arched his hips into Tony’s and the move made both men moan. The god pushed him back on the covers and started to place soft and wet kisses on his neck and chest. Tony closed his eyes and gave himself fully into sensation . He had missed this so fucking much he suddenly wanted to have Loki now, without this whole foreplay. He felt the trickster’s hands on his pants and arched his hips into the touch. Loki took his pants off, along with boxers and came back up to kiss Tony again, hungrily and violently.

Tony turned so now he was the one on top. He stopped kissing Loki and went straight to his leather pants getting them down with one smooth move. He looked at his body again and decided to be gentle no matter what Loki said. He spread his legs, wetted his fingers with his own saliva and placed them around Loki’s entrance. The God let out a soft moan when he felt first finger inside of him. Tony took it in and out a few times before the second finger joined in. And then third. Loki’s moans were getting louder with every finger in and Tony was now so hard it almost hurt him.

He grabbed the trickster’s legs by the ankles and placed them on his shoulders. He looked Loki straight in the eyes before he pressed his cock against his entrance. Both of them moaned loudly when Tony was pushing in, slowly and gently. Loki placed his hands on the both sides of the arc reactor, digging his nails into the skin and drawing his head back.

Suddenly Tony heard Loki whisper something quietly. He could see his lips move but had no idea what the god actually said. Then, moment after the whispers stopped, Tony let out a moan louder than any of the previous ones. What he felt was much more intense than the normal thing. He looked Loki in the eyes and saw him smiling with that sparkle of trickery in it. “You little…”

Tony pulled out almost completely and pushed back inside. It felt so good, he closed his eyes and let out a lustful gasp. He started thrusting faster and faster with every minute, making both of them fill the room with their moans and gasps.

It never felt better for Tony. Since he was with Loki, every time he had the best sex of his life, but this… Loki’s little spell and the fact they haven’t seen each other for almost two weeks made everything – feelings and actions – bigger and meaningful.

Tony felt it coming more than ever- he started thrusting even faster and harder and felt Loki’s fingernails digging deeper into his skin. Both of them closed their eyes shut and let out the loudest moans they could only manage. Tony thrust into the God one last time and started to breathe heavily.

He looked down at him to see Loki’s eyes were still closed. The billionaire pulled out and cleared his chest with one of the covers, tossing it on the floor after he was done. He looked again at all the bruises and started to kiss gently each and every single one of them. He felt Loki’s gaze on him and smiled kissing the last of the purple stains on the god’s body.

Tony came back up and kissed the man in his bed. The god reciprocated and after a minute both of them were lying on their back, fingers laced together between their bodies.

“I should be disappearing more often,” Loki said, joking.

“Do not even--,” Tony started, but was interrupted by lustful lips that he couldn’t say no to.


End file.
